1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an external airbag and particularly to an external airbag that is deployed so as to extend upward along a front pillar.
2. Related Art
In related art, external airbags have been used that protect a subject to be protected such as a pedestrian against the impact of a collision in case the subject to be protected collides with an automobile. In general, an external airbag is folded and housed in an automobile and is deployed by injection of deployment gas into the airbag. The deployed external airbag, when receiving a subject to be protected, is deformed depending on the pressure from the subject, and thus the collision energy of the subject is absorbable by the external airbag. External airbags are in practical use which are each deployed along, for instance, front pillars which are formed solidly in an automobile. Here, the front pillars are formed so as to extend along the sides of the windshield, and there are calls for an external airbag that is deployed so as to reliably cover the front pillars without being displaced from the front pillars.
Thus, as a technique for reliably covering the front pillars, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2005-153851 proposes a protection device for pedestrians including a first airbag that inflates so as to cover the vicinity of the center of the cowl top, and a second airbag that inflates so as to cover the front pillars on both sides of the first airbag. The protection device for pedestrians is such that the first airbag first starts to inflate and the second airbag inflates upward along the front pillars while being in contact with the inflated first airbag, and thus the second airbag may be inflated along the front pillars by being guided by the first airbag.